I want to be emperor

Chapter 54 Shelling
In Songshan, Luo Zhixue led An Yongduo and others to the hidden command post on the mountainside on the left side of the canyon, looking down at the Ming army outside the valley.

The coming Ming army was exactly as reported by the sentinel, at least thousands of people.

And it is easy to see that there are nearly 300 soldiers in formation as a whole.

The area of ​​well-trained soldiers and temporarily recruited county brave young and strong is naturally very large, even if you just take a look at their formation from a distance, you can basically distinguish them.

There are nearly three hundred soldiers, which is a strong enemy for the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion.

After all, there are veterans with rich combat experience in their village protection battalion, even including those prisoners of war and old thieves, there are only about a hundred people.

It's just that the veterans in the Baoxiang camp are quite special. They are not ordinary infantry, but most of them are from cavalry. Most of the prisoners and old thieves can also ride and shoot.

Three hundred soldiers, hundreds of county warriors, and hundreds of civilian husbands, these are the enemies that Luo Zhixue has to face.

In addition to the impressive strength of the enemy army, Luo Zhixue also discovered a lot of firearms in the Ming army ranks.

This is not uncommon. The Ming army has been playing with guns since the founding of the country, and it has been more than 200 years since the founding of the country. Bird guns and Hongyi artillery have also been playing for decades.

Not to mention other places, there are a lot of artillery on the head of Luyang Pass not far away.

In the second and third lumen armies such as county bravery and guards, there may be fewer and worse firearms, but the proportion of firearms in some main field Ming armies is not small.

Huang Guangmao's troops were under Chen Zhibang's command, and the Ming army under Chen Zhibang's command was one of the main forces of the Ming Dynasty in the Central Plains.

It is very normal for such a Ming army to be equipped with firearms.

But Luo Zhixue was a little relieved that although the Ming army at the foot of the mountain was equipped with firearms, they obviously didn't have any large-caliber long-barreled artillery.

Although the distance was several hundred meters, Luo Zhixue still saw that the three artillery pieces launched by the Ming army at the foot of the mountain were very typical short-barreled shotguns, and they were estimated to be only about a hundred catties. What about the two two-hundred-jin shotguns equipped in the village camp?

In addition to these three hundred-jin short robes, the Ming army was also equipped with a batch of bird guns, which seemed to be not many, probably only a few dozen.

These musketeers, sword and shield hands, and spearmen were mixed together to form a small formation of a dozen people.

It's not that hundreds of people directly rushed up in a dense formation, so that it seemed a little scattered.

At this time, An Yongduo beside Luo Zhixue said: "It's a mandarin duck formation!"

Luo Zhixue had also heard about the mandarin duck formation in his previous life. After a brief meeting, he remembered that this thing is still the main formation of the Qi family army. It is said that it is very useful for fighting Japanese pirates, but he didn't know much about it, so he immediately sent an inquiry to Ernst & Young. look.

At this time, An Yongduo also remembered that his general was a scholar. Although he knew a lot, he didn't seem to know the mandarin duck formation.

Without Luo Zhixue asking, An Yongduo explained: "This formation is good at small-scale fighting, and it is more suitable in the water towns and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River."

Lin Dongsheng on the side showed a hint of sneer at this time: "It seems that the Ming army on the other side regards us as ordinary thieves!"

How ordinary thieves fight, naturally they don't pay attention to any rules, and they also lack professional long-range firepower such as bows and arrows, artillery, and muskets. Naturally, they will die miserably against the coordinated formation of the Shangguan army, let alone the officers and soldiers. There are also long-range firepower arms such as archers, musketeers, and artillery.

However, the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp is different from ordinary thieves.

There are quite a few of them who can bend bows and shoot arrows. One out of a hundred cavalrymen counts as one, and all of them can bend bows and shoot arrows. There are also dozens of infantry in the large group who can shoot arrows.

In addition they had two cannons.

Speaking of long-range firepower, the Ming army at the foot of the mountain is not as good as them.

The best way for the officers and soldiers to deal with the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion's excellent long-range troops but poor melee infantry is actually to pull out a few long-barreled cannons and attack them with a burst of artillery fire. A group of archers or musketeers come to fight a wave, and finally rush up to do a wave with armored infantry.

At that time, the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp will either be beaten passively, or they can only get on their horses and rush out to fight actively.

However, Huang Guangmao didn't know that these rebels on the opposite side were unusual.

Until now, Huang Guangmao actually regarded Songshan's rebels as ordinary thieves and bandits.

And he has rich experience in dealing with this kind of ordinary thieves.

He reckoned that his soldiers lined up, covered his artillery approaching and then fired a few rounds of artillery. The bandit army hiding behind the simple wooden wall was basically scared away. After Yong rushed up, it was basically over.

As for letting his own fighters get close to fight, in fact, he didn't want to do that.

Not reluctant, but not necessary.

His soldiers are used to cover the artillery and raiders. The main force of the charge will be the cannon fodder and even unarmed civilians. If the bandits on the opposite side can resist the attack of the county brave, then he will dispatch Soldiers attack.

Now, no need.

How should I put it, even if you want to send out soldiers, you have to use cannon fodder to consume the physical energy of the bandit soldiers first, how can you just send three hundred soldiers there.

So what Luo Zhixue and the others saw was that the soldiers of the Ming army did not act rashly after lining up mandarin duck formations one after another, but lined up on both sides.

The huge middle position was vacated, and soon a small group of Ming soldiers pushed three artillery carts forward. Each of the three artillery carts was equipped with a bowl-mouth cannon weighing about [-] jin.

At the same time, dozens of archers came forward.

The county warriors of the brigade followed behind the gunners and archers.

Luo Zhixue on the mountainside also continued to observe the movements of the Ming army. When he saw the artillerymen and archers of the Ming army coming forward, he immediately said to Zhang Malin: "When the enemy gunners enter the effective range, open fire on them immediately."

The three artillery pieces of the enemy army seem to be only about a hundred catties, but they still pose a great threat to our own side. Once they are allowed to approach and fire, they will seriously threaten our own side.

Luo Zhixue decided to give priority to killing these three cannons.

After Zhang Malin heard Luo Zhixue's order, he immediately said: "Follow the order!"

Then he turned around and headed towards the artillery position on the side.

Luo Zhixue chose to command the battle on the left mountainside in order to better observe the entire battlefield from a commanding height.

Similarly, when the artillery team selected the artillery position, it also had high requirements for the shooting range, and it was also deployed here and camouflaged.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue was able to command artillery units nearby to fight.

After Zhang Malin turned and left, he began to personally command the artillery to prepare for the battle.

At this time, the artillery has been loaded in advance, and the gunners are ready, and they will be loaded as soon as they start running, trying to launch the second round of shelling in the shortest possible time.

Zhang Malin aimed himself, aiming the muzzle at an open space at the foot of the mountain, at an overall distance of about 150 meters.

This distance is already the maximum effective range of the two two-hundred-jin short robes under his hand. If it is any further, the coverage accuracy cannot be guaranteed, and even the lethality cannot be guaranteed.

Time passed bit by bit. After more than half an hour of dawdling at the foot of the mountain, the Ming army finally began to advance on a large scale, and gradually approached a distance of about 150 meters.

When the opponent entered a distance of 150 meters, Zhang Malin did not immediately order to fire, but said: "Wait a minute, wait for them to get closer."

Although the opponent has entered the effective range of about 150 meters, Zhang Malin saw that the opponent's artillery is relatively small, and it seems to be a very old-fashioned bowl-mouth cannon. This thing needs to be fired at a very short distance to be able to shoot. Has relatively good lethality.

In view of the fact that the opponent's artillery would not be able to pose any threat to his side for a while, Zhang Malin decided to wait for them to continue to approach before firing.

After all, the two cannons under his hands are light cannons, and they fire shotguns. The closer the opponent is, the greater the damage will be.

The enemy army had already entered the effective firing range, but the own artillery did not fire, which was naturally discovered by Luo Zhixue.

He turned his head and glanced at the artillery position, and saw that Zhang Malin was staring at the enemy intently, and adjusted the shooting angle of the artillery himself, as if he was frightened by the officers and soldiers and caused the delay of the fighter plane.

Immediately, he withdrew his gaze.

He still has some trust in Zhang Malin, he is not someone who panics and hesitates when things happen, otherwise Luo Zhixue would not have promoted him to be the captain of the artillery team.

Sure enough, when the Ming army continued to enter about [-] meters, Zhang Malin finally ordered to fire: "Fire!"

Following his order, the two two-hundred-jin short robes under his hand immediately roared!

Long!
Long!
The sound of two cannons suddenly rose in the valley, and spread far, far away, so that there were birds in the forest separated by several hills.

In the smoke, Zhang Malin was yelling: "Reload quickly.", trying to reload as soon as possible and launch a second round of shelling.

Not far away, Luo Zhixue squinted at the Ming army at the foot of the mountain.

In his line of sight, at least half of the twenty or so Ming troops at the foot of the mountain who were pushing forward with artillery carts or carrying shields to cover the gunners were already lying down.

After seeing this scene, Luo Zhixue couldn't help clenching his fists: "Beautiful job!"

It was not in vain that he carefully built a hidden artillery position, and there are many branches in this artillery position as a cover.

If you don't look carefully, it's actually hard to find that there are two cannons hidden in a branch.

If the Ming army had discovered that there were artillery here before, they would have come over there stupidly, and would have chosen other methods long ago.

Disguise the artillery, wait for the enemy to get close to it, and then fire bombardment by surprise, in order to maximize the power of the two artillery at hand.

(End of this chapter)